Josh McDaniels Broke Derek Carr
The Raiders are having a bad time. We know why. We all knew Josh McDaniels was a bad hire. Maybe some of us thought “oh, well, he’s probably learned a lot from his Denver experience, and he got more time and tutelage from Bill, maybe he will do better this time”. So far: not so much. While it’s hard to accurately judge a coach from half a season unless they are Urban Meyer, Josh has been about as bad as feared.
The team keeps losing. They put up a fight at the end, but they fail. They choke away leads. You can only blame injuries so much. You can only blame the schedule so much. You can only blame the roster so much. This team has talent. There’s no reason this team should have lost to a guy who had never coached a football game at a level above high school before. But they did, and Derek Carr broke down. It was hard to watch. He did his best to keep it in, but this loss truly seemed to break him. Considering all that Carr has dealt with in his career, that said a lot. Pretty much every Raiders fan I saw was calling for McDaniels’ head. Can’t blame them. This is basically rock bottom.
It especially hurts when you consider some of the other coaching situations around the league. The Vikings have a new coach and front office, and they are 8-1, with a track record of winning the types of close games the Raiders are losing. The Giants are in effectively the same position, cruising at 7-2 despite a weak roster from years of mismanagement, finding ways to win. Mike McDaniel in Miami is doing great. Doug Pederson, while the wins aren’t there, is clearly a better coach than Urban Meyer and the Jags feel competitive if not good. Matt Eberflus seems to be getting the Bears into better shape as of late. The worst new coaches are actually all retreads. Dennis Allen looks bad in New Orleans. Lovie Smith looks apathetic in Houston. Todd Bowles looks a little lost in Tampa. What makes McDaniels sting, even more, is that Rick Bisacca took this team to the playoffs last year. Last year the roster was worse and they had the horrible distraction of the Gruden scandal to deal with, and they still made it. I thought Bisaccia deserved a shot after last year. They ditched him for this.
Davis came out in support of McDaniels after the press conference and the team seems to be happy with that. Maybe they actually do like the guy. I also agree it is probably too early to fire McDaniels anyway. Urban set an unbeatable precedent of failure, McDaniels hasn’t gotten close to it yet. If the team only continues to spiral as the season goes on then I think there is an argument for roasting him. If the team manages to find a groove, maybe it might be worth giving him the second year, on thin ice. We might also find out that Jeff Saturday is the next Bill Belichick, making this loss less painful in retrospect. Time will tell, as it always does.
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this comment was bad 30 years ago, and it’s only gotten worse. The fact that it’s SO old and SO bad that most people don’t even do it anymore almost makes it better.
As much as I like to rib on Josh McDaniels I do wanna point out part of this is just the Raiders regressing to the mean. Last year they were IIRC 7-2 in one score games. This year so far of their seven losses, six have been by one score. McDaniels is likely not the guy but at the same time they’ve been unlucky in one score games and even then every single one they had a shot at winning them still.
And they got a ton of luck in playing teams that were ravaged by covid for a week. Even without accounting for that, they were rated poorly in all the advanced stats due to their close wins against bad teams. Football Outsiders also pointed out that a lot of their players (esp on D) are just doggin it this year. Being outrun by Matt Ryan is shameful.
But half of those one score losses were games in which the Raiders blew double-digit leads.
Bill Belichick’s coaching tree looks terrible.
To be fair there are two exceptions to the rule. So far Daboll has been doing great. And Mike Vrabel should absolutely be considered a branch as well (even if he was only a player under him but not on any coaching staff).
Maybe the rule is the more distant outer branches are healthier, but the inner circle is rotten?
Billy O was pretty good as a coach, too. It was when he started trying to be the GM that he got into trouble
Flores 3. He took the absolute dog shit of the 2019 Miami roster and made them respectable.
Flores also tried his best to get rid of Tua.
That was Ross who wanted rid to Tua for Brady, not Flores.
I’m fine with wanting Brady for Tua. Flores wanted the sex pest for Tua, which is unforgivable
To be fair, Belichick’s first year in New England was abysmal. Even if you’re someone who believes that Brady was responsible for most of that success, they only won those first few Super Bowls because Belichick was able to revamp the roster between years 1 & 2, which gave Brady the support structure he needed.
I don’t think McDaniels is anywhere close to Belichick, but I’ll still give him a little bit of the benefit of the doubt. Failing in Denver, having a rough first year in Vegas, and then finding success would follow the Belichick pattern of failing in Cleveland, struggling initially in New England, and then succeeding.
I agree with your point, though I don’t think Belichick’s struggles in Cleveland and New England are a good comparison to McDaniels’ failures in Denver and Vegas.
Belichick inherited a Browns team that had bottomed out the year prior and, following some early struggles, saw them improve every season until they finally reached the playoffs and won a game in his fourth year. Conversely, McDaniels inherited a team that had stagnated in mediocrity for a few seasons and needed a boost. His Broncos got off to an extremely hot start in his first year before epically crashing and burning which led to him being fired before the end of his second year.
Similarly, Belichick inherited a Patriots team that was already trending downward before bottoming out in his first season. McDaniels inherited a team that had just made the playoffs the year prior. It’s a different situation entirely even if the paths appear to be similar. I get where you’re coming from, and I agree that we probably should give McDaniels another season to work out the kinks before we pass judgement, but I don’t think it’s right to use Bill Belichick’s track to success as a basis for comparison.
Fire mcdaniels he is holding them back from greatness. Because they have DEREK CARR, DEVANTAE ADAMS, AND CHANDLER JONES. And here they are 2-7 Derek Carr has the right to be upset.
Chandler Jones has been garbage this season.
I thought Tom Brady was the cry baby (This is a joke I do not think carr sucks or is a baby) dude has a emotional boo boo.
The Raiders are not a talentless team. Sure, they’ve been hamstrung a little bit by A LOT of whiffs on the defensive side of the ball, but at least on offense they’ve got decent talent. On paper, any decent head coach should be able to at least hover near .500 with these pieces even in arguably the most talented division in football. But culture clearly matters, and I feel like the Raiders more than most other teams is still trying to cling to some inherited culture that they’re only half-invested in. It’s a team that feels like it was built in Madden by some burnt-out college kid who doesn’t have to pay attention to chemistry. And I think Josh McDaniels, for all of his supposed tactical knowledge, just isn’t the kind of guy who can create that.
Look at teams like the Dolphins, Vikings, Giants: all have head coaches that have a demonstrably worse pedigree than McDaniels on roughly the same/worse teams. They all have their teams playing hard for them, thriving as a collective, showing some swagger, and in many cases succeeding in less-than-ideal scenarios. The Raiders are hopelessly broken and should probably do what they can to blow it up and restart.
Also, props to Carr for showing some genuine emotion and not bottling it up. Too often in the football world do we see toxic masculinity run rampant. It’s okay to be frustrated and it’s okay to show that even if you think people will make fun of it. Fact is that’s how the entire locker room probably feels and I’d rather have a guy vent and care, than sulk and pout like some other supposed “baaaaaaaaaaaaad” men.